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Lexington
Lexington is an aircraft carrier based on USS Ranger (CV-4). Introduction USS Lexington (CV-2), nicknamed "Lady Lex", was an early aircraft carrier built for the United States Navy. She was the lead ship of the Lexington class; her only sister ship, Saratoga, was commissioned a month earlier. Originally designed as a battlecruiser, she was converted into one of the Navy's first aircraft carriers during construction to comply with the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922, which essentially terminated all new battleship and battlecruiser construction. The ship entered service in 1928 and was assigned to the Pacific Fleet for her entire career. Lexington and Saratoga were used to develop and refine carrier tactics in a series of annual exercises before World War II. On more than one occasion these included successfully staged surprise attacks on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The ship's turbo-electric propulsion system allowed her to supplement the electrical supply of Tacoma, Washington, during a drought in late 1929 to early 1930. She also delivered medical personnel and relief supplies to Managua, Nicaragua, after an earthquake in 1931. Lexington was at sea when the Pacific War began on 7 December 1941, ferrying fighter aircraft to Midway Island. Her mission was cancelled and she returned to Pearl Harbor a week later. After a few days, she was sent to create a diversion from the force en route to relieve the besieged Wake Island garrison by attacking Japanese installations in the Marshall Islands. The island was forced to surrender before the relief force got close enough, and the mission was cancelled. A planned attack on Wake Island in January 1942 had to be cancelled when a submarine sank the oiler required to supply the fuel for the return trip. Lexington was sent to the Coral Sea the following month to block any Japanese advances into the area. The ship was spotted by Japanese search aircraft while approaching Rabaul, New Britain, and her aircraft shot down most of the Japanese bombers that attacked her. Together with the carrier Yorktown, she successfully attacked Japanese shipping off the east coast of New Guinea in early March. Lexington was briefly refitted in Pearl Harbor at the end of the month and rendezvoused with Yorktown in the Coral Sea in early May. A few days later the Japanese began Operation Mo, the invasion of Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, and the two American carriers attempted to stop the invasion forces. They sank the light aircraft carrier Shoho on 7 May during the Battle of the Coral Sea, but failed to encounter the main Japanese force of the carriers Shokaku and Zuikaku until the next day. Aircrafts from Lexington and Yorktown succeeded in badly damaging Shōkaku, but the Japanese aircraft crippled Lexington. Vapors from leaking aviation gasoline tanks sparked a series of explosions causing the damage to become uncontrollable, and Lexington had to be scuttled by an American destroyer during the evening of 8 May to prevent being captured.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Lexington_(CV-2) USS Lexington (CV-2)] The aftermath of the depressed loss of Lexington is twofold. Firstly, she along with Yorktown succeeded in severely damaging Shokaku and also massively destroyed the aircrafts carried by Zuikaku. As a result, both Japanese carriers failed to play their role in the later battle of Midway, changing the course of the Pacific War forever. Secondly, the lessons learnt from her loss helped many US carriers survive hostile air attacks (especially substitute CO2 for gasoline before hostile air attack impending), making these precious ships more and more difficult to sink. The name Lexington was later succeeded by a Essex-class aircraft carrier (CV-16) to commemorate the pioneering Lexington (CV-2). Lexington (CV-16) succeeded in sinking Zuikaku in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, a true revenge. The crew of Lexington (CV-16) received the Presidential Unit Citation for heroism in action against enemy Japanese forces, 11 battle stars for major engagements during World War II service, and other awards. The spirit of Lexington still lives through her successor. Data Illustration Quotes English= |-|中文= Trivia Lady Lex * Nickname is "Lady Lex", which is called by both American navy and players. * She looks like her sister Saratoga (and so was USS Lexington and USS Saratoga). Reward of 1-4 * Since aircraft carrier is an extremely rare kind of ship in the game, Lexington is usually the only aircraft carrier most players can acquire during the beginning of their journey (before Saratoga became the reward for acheving Lv 40, she is also probably the only directly available aircraft carrier). * Lexington becomes the second most powerful aircraft carrier after remodeling (with Saratoga Remodeled the most powerful). Other * She provided electricity for Tacoma, Washington from December 1929 to January 1930, 4,250,000 kWh in total. External Links